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Faith Restored is a project conceived directly in response to the recent increase in negative sentiments towards religions. Initially, my research takeaway was how most religions have the element of water as a symbol of purity, to wash away negativity. That led me to take a step back and examine the contemporary social landscape that religions are set upon; there is blatant Islamophobia, Christianity is mocked openly on social media because of high profile scandals, Jews and Muslims seemingly hate each other because of the wider Arab-Israeli conflict… and these are only some of long list negative attributes associated with religion today. That in itself is an irony, because none of the religions are about that. Most if not all religion preach goodness, uphold moral values and sets exemplary standards to follow.

Therefore, Faith Restored a campaign designed -as its name suggests- restore faith in faith (as in religion). Simply put, it is a campaign aimed at denouncing falsehood with regard to religion, and also encourage people to take action against negative sentiments and hate speech, which have been proven to possess a far more dangerous impact if left unchecked.

The three main collaterals in the campaign are designed to each hold a purpose. The campaign strategy (which I dubbed the A-B-C approach) is as follows:

[A]ction: Taking an active stand against negative sentiment

[B]rief: Educating and raising awareness

[C]onversation: Encouraging conversation to foster understanding

LOGO

For the campaign logo, it features an incomplete circle (to symbolise something broken/a ‘gap’ that needs to be filled, and in this case, filled with the campaign), where the line the extends from one word to another, which lends to the meaning of ‘restore faith’ and ‘faith restored’.

Inspired by Donald Trump’s proposed wall, The Wall was constructed with actual hate speech and negative sentiments collected from the media (online, the news, etc) and anonymous survey responses as hosted on NTU Qualtrics. It is important to stress that the comments are real. The intention is to show how prevalent hate speech and negative sentiments, and by extension, how big of a problem it is. Audiences are encouraged to take action by actually removing the messages one by one.

POSTERS

The posters are straightforward with a clear message – negative stereotypes are one dimensional and myopic. In each poster, an image of the negative stereotype of a particular religion is juxtaposed against one that of what the religion actually entails, in order to bring across that direct contrast between the two. The images are based on actual well-known public figures who have tainted the name of the religion they have claimed, taking action in the name of the religion, despite it being entirely opposite of what the religion advocates. These people are Ho Yeow Sun, Jihadi John and Meir Ettinger. The call to action of the posters is to ‘go beyond the stereotypes’ and to consider the many layers of the issue at hand.

The purpose of the video is to show the various opinions of youths with regard to hate speech – and to further encourage conversation about the issue at hand. Furthermore, in its construction as an online video that is highly opinionated, it will encourage other users to join in the conversation as well.

The Ganges river is now heavily polluted due to the consequences of certain choices that humans have made. It’s role has changed from being a source of healing to a source of sickness and death. However, we still have the choice to reverse this.

WHO

The people on the internet. Use the power of media to pressure those who contribute to the pollution. In such cases, instead of telling the people directly that they are destroying the river, a better way would be let them experience the damage themselves.

WHY

The pollution of the Ganges has many harsh consequences. It’s healing factor is now severely compromised due to the willful actions of humans. The concept of choosing to throw something filthy into a holy purifying source just because ‘it can clear it’ is rather odd and selfish.

HOW

A 50 page art book (Main), a game preview (With two original tracks), and a designer toy.

Note: Serious games are simulations of real-world events or processes designed for the purpose of solving a problem. Although serious games can be entertaining, their main purpose is to train or educate users, though it may have other purposes, such as marketing or advertisement.

The funds collected from the toy will be donated to activist efforts to aid the spread of awareness about the river’s state. A short interview will also be included with each toy, with each design representing the ‘status’ group of the interviewee (Eg. Doctor/ patient/ fisherman etc). This would give buyers further insight into he personal lives of those connected to the Ganges.

Game Narrative (featured in the art book and the preview):

3 levels

Level 1: Based on the assassination of Swami Niganamanda. The player is identified as a spy/ worker from an organisation that contributes to the pollution of the river. Play against the timer to find your target and complete your mission.

Level 2: Player is now tasked to control the poisonous waste/ put them into chemical pods to be dumped into the river.

Level 3: Player now plays as the organization boss after sacking his worker for being too incompetent to dump things into the river. He takes matters into his own hands and proceed to release the waste in bullet like forms. Gain points by hitting moving targets.

Level 3.2: Something ominous happens, the Goddess ganga now appears and urges him to stop. However, he does not and launches an attack against her. This level is played by the number of times the spacebar is pressed in 60 seconds.

Ending: Ganga, now enraged, unleashes her powers and flood the whole screen.

Water, a sacred and mysterious force that is able to purge the evil, spiritual impurities and many negative aspects faced in life. The moving water force that shapes and guide humanity, is also a power of life.

Bali is a picturesque paradise island that captures the attention of many all over the world. Balinese Gamelan also display elements of water through the style they play their music. Techniques such as interlocking and syncopation are greatly used and played at high speed to create the illusion of running water.

Majority of the Balinese are fervent believers of Hinduism and water, again plays a significant role in this religion. They rely heavily on water for spiritual, environmental and sustainable purposes. Therefore, water is treated as divine and worshipped with great respects and intentions in Bali. One can never finish listing the uses of water in Bali, it is an integral part of the people’s lives. It is not just water; to them it is their “Holy Water”.

Holy water also represents “Sea of Milk” in Hindu mythology, a well-known narrative in Hinduism. In this religious narrative, there was one thing in common – Movement. Every scene depicts characters physically moving and tension between various parties.

Aim

In this project, I aim to convey the idea of movement that will be featured in a dome exhibition – Mystic; through the use of visual and auditory sensory experiences from the narrative of the Sea of Milk. The audio created for the dome exhibition is a sound art track that has influences from the Balinese Gamelan, heightening the feeling of being in a Sea of Milk. The exhibition is segmented into four sections, which helps the viewer absorb and enjoy their linear experiential journey that allows an immersive experience at the same time.

The four sections:

Embarking on a Journey

Mount Mandara radiates at it’s peak, showing a sacred world of paradise that holds a great magical power. Gods gathered here to discuss on obtaining the elixir of life.

Overcoming Obstacles

In order to obtain the elixir, the heavenly Gods and underworld Demons have to work together to churn the sea, as good things come forth from the churning.

Churning and Battle

Naga Atupura lifted the Mount Mandara and placed it in the Sea of Milk. Naga Basuki wrapped himself around the mountain. Gods and Demons started churning the ocean of milk, till smoke, fire and poison spilled everywhere. Bhrama intercede and stopped the chaos. Tritha Amrita appeared in the middle of the ocean with the elixir in her hands. Gods and Demons eventually broke out into a great battle, as both parties want the elixir for themselves. Shiva took control and killed all of the demons.

Peace Restored

Peace was restored and the Gods shared the elixir amongst themselves in Mount Mandara.

Flyers used to publicise the event. It could also double up as a Poster event.

3D Playblast of the exhibition’s exterior.

3D Playblast of the exhibition interior.

Sneak preview of the 4 Dome’s interior.

Original versions of the 4 part Motion Graphics before mockup.

Dome 1

Original versions of the 4 part Motion Graphics before mockup.

Dome 2

Original versions of the 4 part Motion Graphics before mockup.

Dome 3

Original versions of the 4 part Motion Graphics before mockup.

Dome 4

Web design and layout

Web mockup on a computer. This web design aims for a friendly user interface.

Final Thoughts:

It was a very challenging but again a really rewarding process, having to constantly steer myself to clear directions whenever I feel lost at any point in time. Definitely feel like I am pushed me beyond my comfort zone, but in return for a steep learning curve, it was worth it.

Do we take the little gestures of gratitude we do as wholly habitual? How bad can keeping it bottled up be for the people we interact with?

Masaru Emoto’s The Hidden Messages in Water has become somewhat infamous among the scientific community for claiming that water fed with positive words can crystallise into more symmetrical and beautiful formations, while water fed with negative words freezes into irregular and unclear shapes.

Naturally this form of pseudo-science is controversial in its scientific foundation, but of note is the question that a surprising amount of people formed from the theory:

If words can affect plain tap water in this way, then won’t the effects be carried over to humans, who are 70% water?

Positive Psychology is still a relatively new study. Its origins date back to William James’ time (1842 – 1910) although the term was first coined by Abraham Maslow in 1954 and it was Martin Seligman who founded the study as its own field when he became President of the American Psychological Association.

This study deals with the opposite of what was imagined of psychology before the 2000s, which was basically “psychoanalysing people for anything wrong with their behaviour and curing mental illnesses”.The idea of positive psychology is the notion that the absence of mental problems or emotional turmoil does not equate to a mentally healthy individual. Rather it is the humanistic approach to living happily that indicates a good mental foundation.

This study is rather slow to catch on in Asian countries, particularly because we’re of a high-context society where our communication is mostly implied instead of being literal. Authoritarian methods and the ‘tiger mom’ are common parenting tactics that had only begun to be questioned just before the turn of the millennium, as meritocracy has an extremely firm root in the Asian society so therefore any method to let children get exceptional grades is “justified”.

As a result of such a social influence, the Asian personality even in Singapore is said to be withdrawn and carrying a knee-jerk reaction for holding back expressions of any emotion, including joy. This results in a society that lacks certainty that anything positive is happening in an individual’s life since all other people’s emotions at this point are speculative. Asian children, from a young age, learn by themselves that saying things like “I love you” or “I’m glad you’re here” are embarrassing and awkward even to their own parents. Hardly anybody questions the relationships in the family, and a common worry for both parents and children alike is if they are actually loved and appreciated in the household, especially if the family is not especially stable.

My goal is to bring the expression of love and gratitude back into the daily lives of children (and secondarily their parents) by incorporating the show of gratitude into mediums that children of schooling age can enjoy.

I’ve been told that the design should be colourful and DIY enough to appeal to most children of both genders, but yet not overtly childish so as to not to push away the ones who don’t like being treated as children. The aesthetic of the project emulates water and dissolvable vitamin tablets in the shape of a heart, which brings the idea back to Masaru Emoto’s theory that started the inquiry and serves as a metaphor that it is something humans would need to stay healthy.
My first medium would be a party game named Thank You for Letting it Out; basically Truth-or-Dare: Small and Nice Acts version.

The box is a clasped one to keep it closed in case someone shakes it.

There are 80 cards in total: 2 sets of 18 variations for both Truth and Dare, plus 8 “Keep-it-in” cards which function as passes.

The rules (for 2 or more players):
1. Each player takes turns to draw either a Truth or a Dare card. Dare cards usually contain more points than Truth cards.
2. Once a player draws the card, they have to do what’s written on the other side, and they’ll earn the points as shown on the heart tablet.
3. If the player draws a Keep-It-In card, he/she is allowed to pass any future turn by returning this card to the bottom of the respective deck and shuffling it.
4. If the player does not have any Keep-It-In cards but wants to pass, 4 points will be taken from that player.
5. The game ends when 15 minutes is up or the cards have run out. The player with the most points wins!

This game encourages thought on what and how he/she is grateful towards interactions in daily routine and also prompts players to disclose information about their view on gratitude, allowing the players to bond in a positive manner.

My second product is a wall calendar with the title Thank You for being here all year.

Every month brings a theme for children to show their creativity in decorating the top of the poster.

There are random dates highlighted in red where users are encouraged to use the Thank You for the Vitamin app to send a nice message to their parent (or anybody else).

Stickers are packaged with the calendar. When the user gets exceptionally thanked, thanked someone, received a Vitamin etc., they can stick one of the stickers on the date.

This calendar is supposed to prompt users to notice thankful acts more in their daily lives, be it from themselves or from others. This practise can form a habit once they find themselves doing it everyday.
My last product is an app named Thank You for the Vitamin. It is a cross between a simple message platform and a status updater, with the purpose of giving a bit of positivity to somebody’s day.

The app has a constant wave animation in the background.

Once the user has registered, he/she can log in based on category (parent, child, friend etc.)

The main screen is a calendar showing all the Vitmains received this month, and if the Vitamin is tapped, the message will show.

To send a Vitamin, tap on “Send a Vitamin” and select a templated or customisable message.

Type out the message and either send it immediately or add it to a queue, which delays the message to a set time so that someone can receive messages in a spread period of time instead of getting a lot of them at once.

Flick to send the packaged Vitamin.

When a Vitamin is received, tap to dissolve it in water and the message will show. The Vitamin will then be saved in the phone calendar. Tap to view previous messages.

This app is a simple and accessible way to compliment, thank or cheer someone up. Since it’s much less stressful to express emotions through a virtual means than physically, this app allows people to make expressing positive thoughts a frequent thing.Conclusion:

The design process was quite a struggle for me since I don’t have any primary sources on what would motivate children to use something. Someone then told me to not underestimate children since kids today are much more mature than they seem and a childish design may turn them away. So I revamped my entire design to a much more simple interface and worked with as little of a range of hues as possible. The results are much easier to reproduce and animate and I was quite glad I got the advice.

With these 3 products, I hope to promote a better mindset for everyone, but especially children. It can be suffocating to grow up having to keep every compliment and word of love bottled up, wondering if we are hated when in actuality it’s often the opposite. If this could make anybody’s lives even a bit happier, I’d be satisfied with what I’ve done.